Along with an increase of bulgary of car electronic devices, there are used some arrangements which facilitate a user to readily remove a device from his car and bring it with him for the antitheft purpose when he leaves the car.
FIG. 10 shows such a prior art arrangement having a handle 31 attached to the front face of a car stereo or other car electronic device so as to facilitate a user to bring it with him. The handle 31 is made from a metal plate other than plastic resin which does not have a sufficient strength. The metal handle 31 is a single body member including a grip 31a for a parallel alignment with an operation panel 33 and arms 31b extending from opposite ends of the grip 31a. Distal ends of the arms 31b are pivotably supported on front, lateral surfaces of the device 30 by shafts 34. While the device is held in position of a car, the handle 31 is rotated down and accepted in a cavity under the operation panel 33 to take a sitting position substantially parallelly aligned with the operation panel 33 so that it never prevents a user from touching buttons or knobs on the operation panel 33 to activate the device 30. Upon removal of the device 30 from the position of the car, the user may pull and raise the handle 31 from the bottom of the panel 33, and may subsequently remove the device 30 from a bracket by function of a releasable locking mechanism shown in FIG. 11 to bring it with him outside the car.
The releasable locking mechanism comprises claws 39 extending from side surfaces of the device 30, and bores 36 formed in the bracket 35 fixed in the interior of the car. The claws 39 resiliently project or retract with respect to the side surfaces of the device 30, and can engage the bores 36 when they expand.
When the rear portion of the device 30 is inserted in the bracket 35 through its aperture 37, the claws 39 are suppressed by opposed inner walls of the bracket 35 into the interior of the device 30, but they expand outwardly when opposed to the bores 36, and engage the bores 36 to fix the device 30 to the bracket 39.
On removal of the device 30 from the bracket 39, an unlocking tool 40 is inserted in a slot 41 formed in the operation panel 34. The unlocking tool 49 urges an unlocking lever 38 provided at the back of the slot 41, and the unlocking lever 38 activates a resilient mechanism (not shown) to push back the claws 39 into the interior of the device 30. In this configuration, if a user raises and pulls the handle 31, he can readily remove the device 30 from the bracket 35.
However, the metal handle is exposed to the exterior of the device also when it is held in its sitting position, and shows that the device is removable. Therefore, unless the user bring it with him when he leaves the car, the prior art removable device is exposed to danger of burglary rather than other devices which cannot be removed easily.
Further, the handle sometimes spoils a well-balanced appearance of the front face of the device 30 including the operation panel on which operation buttons or liquid crystal indicators are disposed as a display.